USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 52
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closed the valve. I then waded out into the deep water and pulled out the upper gate and floundered back as soon as possible to take out the lower one, being apprehensive of failure on account of the dif- ference in time. The reader will bear in mind that the water in the pond was up to the top and running over the rock, consequently the syphon would dis- charge the water as at a pressure of eight feet, or the difference between the water-level and the lower leg of the syphon. When I pulled out the gate the water poured through the syphon like a young flood. In two minutes the claim below was flooded, sluice- boxes, pumps, and everything made of wood being afloat, which I was not sorry for, as the owners had laughed the loudest at my failure. A whirl-pool over the mouth of the upper end of the syphon showed the force with which the water was being drawn through. I gave a shout or screech of delight which brought every one within hearing to the spot. A man came to the door of the saloon and shouted, " I'll be dogoned if the simon ain't jest a bilin." The cards were thrown down, and a rush made for the syphon. Since then I have "struck it rich " and made my "pile." I have mingled in politics and won the race, and have received a blissful answer from the woman I loved; but I doubt if anything brought the happiness of that moment. Science
was victorious.
Various were the speculations about the " simon." One suggested that the moving power was suction. "Suction be d-d," said the other, with a look of pitiful contempt, "Where's yer suck ?" It may be explained that the plunger of a pump is called a suck by many Far West people. The theory most in vogue was: "Yer see, this end er the simon's a heap the lowest, and the water is gonter run out heah any how; nothin' can't git inter it 'cept at the eends, and the water has ter come; somethin' has ter come, you bet."
In a few days the wonder ceased. I was known as the " simon man," which afterwards was shortened to Simon. There was no fortune in the hole, the bottom being as smooth as your hand.
A visit to the river after an absence of nearly thirty years shows little change. No deep bank diggings, such as characterize the other rivers, are seen; no canals, blasted through the rocky sides, show where the river was turned. The slickens from the mines around the head of the river, have given a smoothness to the channel that it did not formerly have. The cañon, as it was termed, where a pile of boulders ten to a hundred feet in diameter, which filled the whole river-bed in 1851 so that no water was seen or even heard, except during floods, is now so filled with tailings that the water runs over the tops of the rocks. A few timber slides and wood roads show the occasional presence of lumbermen, but otherwise the deer might wander undisturbed.
FARMS.
Above the falls are several good farms. This ground was taken up for farming purposes in 1851, by John M. Jamison and son. They were from St. Louis, where the former had held many posi- tions of trust and honor. They afterwards removed to Pigeon creek, where they erected a saw-mill, put up good buildings, and made a home for the family, which soon joined them. The original location was
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good land, but rather frosty, owing to the conforma- tion of the outlet of the valley, which was a glacial moraine.
LYNCHING AFFAIR.
Jamison's ranch was the scene of an affair in 1852 that occupied the attention of the people and author- ities of El Dorado for some time, involving the Jamisons, both father and son, in a vexations and costly lawsuit.
John Crouch, then living on a place now occupied by Mrs. Williams, found the hide of one of his missing cattle in a Mexican camp, at the forks of the Cosminnes. With the help of some friends, he gath- ered up five or six of the Mexicans, and took them to Jamison's ranch for a trial. Knowing the hasty manner of such trials, and the summary justice meted out, Beebee and other respectable persons at the Forks (Ycomet) sent an express to Coloma for the Sheriff, Buchanan, to be present at the meeting the next day. While the gathering was in progress, the Sheriff and deputies, two or three in number, with some friends and acquaintances of the Mexi- cans, came also. Some high words ensucd, the Sheriff urging the citizens to give up the Mexicans for trial, the citizens insisting upon trying them then and there, as the courts were unreliable. While the angry colloquy was going on, several Mexicans, with arms in their hands, were discovered hanging around on the outskirts of the place. Whether they came with peaceful intent and were afraid to come in, is not known. Several persons went with guns and pistols and drove them away. Among this number was the elder Jamison. There is no mistake about his being of the party, and it is particularly noticed here, as being important in connection with the charge subsequently made against him of resisting the officers. Several shots were fired at the Mexi- cans, and perhaps some were returned. They retired however without much delay. The shots on the outside of the camp seemed to inflame the crowd, many of whom drew their revolvers and told the Sheriff to leave. One person struck his horse with the barrel of a rifle. Perhaps a dozen pistols and guns were exhibited with the intention of overawing him. The Sheriff was obliged to go, as it would have been madness to have drawn a weapon in his own defense in the presence of so many weapons ready to be used. He turned his horse, and rode slowly away, evidently angry, but holding himself in good order, followed by the friends of the Mexicans. Perhaps the presence of the hide might have been explained if the folks at the Forks had been heard. Beebec, of the firm of Beebee & Simpson, claims that the Mexicans were not guilty of any crime; that the parties punished were hard-working, honest men. After the Sheriff and his party had retired, the citi- zens proceeded to try the accused. A jury of twelve was called out. The evidence left no doubt of the stealing of the cattle by some one or more in the camp to which the Mexicans belonged. The accuscd.
one of whom could speak English, told the jury that there were some bad men in the settlement to which he belonged; that neither he nor his friends ought to be held responsible for their deeds, for they were desperadoes, as ready to rob their own countrymen as the Americans. The statement looked reasona- ble, but the accused were found guilty by the jury, mostly on the ground of not having prevented the stealing by other parties, and were sentenced to some thirty lashes each, on the general principle that a grenser was always guilty. One after another was taken out to a tree and whipped. One of them, a fine-looking man-the one spoken of before-bowed to the people with a smile, saying in good English :---
" Gentlemen, I am as innocent of this stealing as any of you," and held his hands up to be tied to the trec.
The exccutioner, whose name will be omitted, said: "G-d you, I'll take that smile off your facc."
John McCauley, one of the participators in the affair, protested against his receiving any severer punishment than the others. It is said that the last-mentioned person was Joaquin Murietta. There are so many conflicting reports concerning him that it is difficult to believe anything. The report that he was unjustly whipped somewhere, is probably true. Persons acquainted with him say that it was in El Dorado county; others say that it was in Sonora. Whether it was Joaquin or somebody else, is not material. The sting of the lash may be borne with indifference, but the disgrace, the insults, con- nected with it, who will forgive? One cncmy at least was made who probably wiped out the dis- grace, according to his code, in blood. The fact that Joaquin commenced his murderous career in Fiddletown; that the participants in the "Jamison affair," as it was called, were apparently hunted, gives an appearance of probability to the theory.
The Sheriff left with no pleasant feelings. The firmly set jaw and steady eye, indicated another chapter in the play. In a day or two after, he returned with a posse comitatus of three or four hun- dred men, to arrest the rioters.
" Then there was hurrying to and fro,
And cheeks all pale which but an hour ago,"
Well-the rioters ran now.
Runners were sent up and down the river, also to Fiddletown, warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Some visited with the Indians for a while; others found a hunting trip on the upper waters of the rivers, to be the best thing at hand. Jamison and his son were both arrested, and taken to Coloma. The posse comitatus helped themselves frecly to hay, grain, and provisions, wasting what they did not consume, and doing damage to the amount of several hundred dollars. At the preliminary examination before a magistrate, the Sheriff found it difficult to fix any participation in resisting him, on either Tamison or the son, for the reason, as before stated,
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that they were of the party that were out at the time to drive away the Mexicans who were hanging around the place. The principle of law, that he who is present when an unlawful act is committed, without using his influence to prevent it, becomes "particeps criminis," was eited with the proof of influence, which, if it had been used, might have averted the resistance: Mr. Jamison's house, or place, had been used on account of the convenience of meeting there, not because he took an active part in the matter. The offense, if any had been committed, was purely technical, and by a general understanding the Jami- sons plead guilty, paid a nominal fine, and were dis- missed; but the active lynchers did not rest quite easy, until after several months had elapsed.
CHAPTER XXXV.
NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
Drytown-Details of Settlement-First Justice of the Peace- Arrival of Families-Scurvy-Great Fire-Farming-Dry Creek - Rattlesnake Gulch - Mile Gulch - Murderers' Gulch-Forest Home-Arkansas Creek-Yankee Hill-Big Nugget - Willow Springs-Central House - Plymouth- Puckerville-Mineral Springs-Fires-Enterprise-Yeomet.
DRYTOWN is on Dry creek, in the northern part of the county, about twelve miles from Jackson. Dry creek, from which the town takes its name, runs through the place. It is the oldest town of any size in the county. As early as May in 1848, some fifty or more persons were working here, the most of whom were Mexicans from Monterey and vicinity. Isaae E. Eastman, now mining in the vicinity of Volcano, was here a few days at that time. Two ounees a day was the ordinary day's work, though occasionally, when a rich crevice was found, the ounces would beeome pounds. During the Summer, the number was still greater. In the following Spring, more white men came, among whom were G. L. Thomas, who had resided in Thomas O. Larkin's family at Monterey, also some of Steven- son's regiment, names unknown, though one of them went by the name of Leather-stocking. All accounts agree in the statement that the ravines and gulehes were very rich, the gold being on the bed-roek near the surface. A hundred dollars to the pan was not an unusual occurrence. The tussocks, or bunches of grass along the ravines, would often have five or six dollars adhering to the roots. Mr. Thomas, who still lives in Drytown, thinks that in the Spring and Summer of '49, men averaged one hundred dollars per day. The town was very quiet, the Indians, Mexicans, and white population generally getting along without much trouble. The four or five white men began to think they were not having a fair show, considering they were the owners of the country, and posted up a notice ordering all foreigners to leave within a eertain time, which, however, was not noticed. An Englishman by the name of Pilkinton, who had formerly lived in Mexico, and understood the Spanish language, kept a store in a brush shanty
and got most of the Mexican trade. A man by the name of Williams, who had a store on Chile hill, got the Indian trade, his stoek being mostly shirts and other cotton goods of gay colors, with which the Indians loved to decorate themselves. At this time there were but three or four log-cabins.
Pilkinton was the first Justice of the Peace, or the first elected rather, but as the election was carried by the residents of the town, who were mostly gamblers, it did not give satisfaction to the miners, who called a meeting in the evening to reconsider the matter. There was no town hall, but a big fire was built against a log, and the meeting was organized by the election of a man by the name of Beiterman as chairman-the chair being a portion of the log at a little distance from the fire. Mr. Beiterman was a portly, good-looking man, and had the only stove- pipe hat in the country, and had the further dis- tinction of having married a runaway wife of Brigham Young, hence was considered a suitable per- son for chairman. The fact that Pilkinton was an Englishman, and was chosen by the gamblers, was duly set forth, and the election was annulled.
During the Summer, when the " around the Horn men" began to arrive, there was a large accession to the white population. All the passengers, num- bering thirty or forty, from the barks Strafford and Anna Welch, from New York, came in a body to the town, and a new impetus was given to affairs. An election for Justice of the Peace was called, and two candidates were set up. The old citizens nominated and supported a man by the name of Mulford, from Pennsylvania. The Straffords nominated a man by the name of Coffin, who was elected after a very spirited contest. He left, however, in the course of a week. A love for a political contest, more than the want of a magistrate, was the source of the interest manifested in the election.
In the Autumn a great many families came to Drytown, among whom were the Hinkstons, Boone, ' lineal descendants of Daniel Boone,' Weston, and Richmond families; a family also settled in Mile gulch. Miss Mollie Boone, now Mrs. Frank Hen- derson, living at Drytown, was born December 2d, 1849, on the north side of the creek, then in El Dorado county, Dry creek being the county line. She was the first white child born in the present limits of the county.
The first attempts to have anything like perma- nent residences, commeneed about this time. So far, the people had camped under trees or brush shanties, or in tents. The boots and hat often served for a pillow. Coyotes prowled around the camps at night, gathering up all that was eatable, or had the smell of human hands on it. One morn- ing, a miner missed one of his boots. He remem- bered that he put it under his head; why any one should steal one boot, he could not imagine. It was found some distance away, gnawed by a coyote, that had managed to pull it from under his head,
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
without disturbing his slumbers. In another in- stance, a man, distrusting his companions, put his purse, containing several pounds of dust, under a flat rock some ways from the camp. In the morn- ing it was gone. He was loud in his complaints of having been robbed by some one of the company. Instead of getting up a row, they were cool enough to inquire into the circumstances, and went with the loser to the defaulting bank. The depositor showed the line between two trees, where the gold was buried under the rock, which appeared to have been moved. A closer examination showed marks of a paw that had scratched around the stone. The purse, gnawed in holes and empty, was found not far away, the dust being scattered over considerable ground. It was mostly recovered, and good feel- ings in the family restored, though coyotes fared badly in the vicinity after that, all on account of " that thar blamed crittur that stole his puss."
ROCKERS.
The Beitermans made rockers out of "split stuff," and sold them for seventy-five dollars each. A year afterwards they were sold for twenty-five dollars, The Americans used rockers, packing the dirt in sacks to water, sometimes half a mile away. The Mexicans dry-washed, with their batayas, with much the same movement that is used in cleaning sand out of gold-dust. When less than an ounce a day was made, new diggings were sought.
CABINS.
When the rains commenced there were few or no cabins; those who had been prudent enough to build them gave a place on the ground for a spread to those who were out of doors. It was found that the western man, either from having crossed the plains or from being accustomed to a rough life, was readiest to adapt himself to circumstances. He soon "knocked up" a log cabin, while the eastern man cursed the country and lamented his hard fate. The first rains were of short duration and before the heavy rains set in all were sheltered. Shakes were worth six- teen dollars per hundred, and a man with a cross-cut saw and froe could make two ounces a day.
SCURVY.
Nearly everybody was afflicted with what was called scurvy, which seemed to be a disease similar to what afflicted the people the following year, though accompanied with other symptoms. The limbs and body would swell, the tongue crack and bleed, and the gums get so sore and ulcerated that the teeth would become loose, sometimes falling out. It was usually accompanied with diarrhea and flux, which became to a great extent epidemic. It is supposed to have been caused by the hardships of the long journey, both by sea and land, and the scarcity of vegetable food. About thirty persons, one-fifth of the white population, died during the Winter, of this disease. Doctors charged eight dollars for a visit in town, and sixteen to fifty dollars per visit to the
country. Dan Worley, who suffered from this disease for some time, employed a physician, who salivated and otherwise demoralized him, without doing him any good, for which he charged one thousand one hundred dollars. Dan thinks he could have got his teeth knocked out for a much less sum than that if he had sct about it.
Potatoes were worth two dollars a pound; a bottle of sauerkraut, four dollars; vinegar, when it could be had, was dealt out as medicine at twenty-five cents a spoonful. The scarcity of good water might have had something to do with the violence of disease, as there was but one place (near the present slaughter house) where drinking water could be obtained. Men would go there before daylight and await their turn for a chance at the small seepage which came out there. Five years afterwards no such awaiting would have occurred, for the sinking of a shaft deep enough to reach the abundance of cool water every- where found in that vicinity, would not have caused ten minutes conference,
Until 1853, Drytown was a collection of log cabins and shake shanties, without much attempt at arch- itectural display or even comfort, but the people caught the prevailing spirit of improvement, and commenced improving. A hall for general purposes was built. It was also used as a church and school- house. In 1854 several brick buildings, supposed to be fire-proof, were erected. In 1856-57 the town was at its best as far as numbers were concerned, though it was even then considered a "worked-out" place, the shallow gulches having been easily ex- hausted and no hill diggings taking their places.
GREAT FIRE.
In the Autumn of 1857 a fire broke out near the creek, and, aided by the wind, situation of the town, and combustible nature of the buildings, in an hour it laid the whole place in ashes. Three buildings, Will- iams' and Louis & Richtmyer's, and the present store of William O. Clark, were the only ones saved. Those who have never seen a California town burn, have no idea of the progress of the flames after a start is made. The shakes and pine boards, ren- dered spongy by long exposure to the Winter rains without protection from paint, and then made dry as tinder by a six months' exposure to a heat of one hundred and forty degrees in the sun, flash like shav- ings, the flame leaping from house to house as on the dry prairie grass, rendering useless any attempts to stay its progress or save property.
Drytown never recovered from this misfortune. The Mexicans and Chilenos, who had constituted the larger part of the population in times past, left, no white people taking their places.
Some of the brick buildings and most of the dwellings of the white residents were rebuilt, but some of the brick storcs were soon after without tenants, and served to shelter the weary pigs and goats from the noon-day sun. When the Gover, Sea- ton, Pennsylvania, and other mines along the lode
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NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
were developed, the town showed some signs of revival, but New Chicago soon appropriated that source of prosperity, and the old routine was resumed. The travel between the different mining towns still goes through Drytown, and the stages from Ione and Latrobe eonnect with stages for the upper towns twiee a day, bringing some trade to the stores.
There is some farming in the vicinity, the soil being well adapted to cereals and fruits. Wine of a fine quality is manufactured in considerable quanti- ties, the capacity of the soil for grapes being unsur- passed. William O. Clark, the famous temperance orator, recuperates his exhausted energies by plough- ing the hill sides and harvesting the tall oats, as a recreation. Robert Cosner, a successful politician, several times eleeted to the office of Sheriff, and now a prominent man in San Franciseo, commenced his career here as a clerk for J. C. Williams. Doc- tor Fox, a stock broker in the city, also resided here in early days, as did W. F. Curtis, a lawyer, after- wards a noted man in the Union army. D. W. Sea- ton, successful as a lawyer, politician, and miner, was also resident here front his first coming to California to the day of his death (soon after his election to the State Senate) by the explosion of the steamer Yo Semite. He gave his name to the Seaton mine.
DRY CREEK.
From the crossing of the Mother Lode, down, this ereek was probably the best in the county. It was the first to be extensively worked, having sev- eral hundred miners while there was yet but a house or two at Amador and Sutter Creek. The source of the gold which enriched all the gulches in the vicin- ity is a mystery. No rieh quartz veins traverse the hills which are nearly a mile west of the Mother Lode, and no place on the Mother Lode in the eounty was as rich as at Drytown, excepting, perhaps, Mur- phy's and Hunt's gulehes. If there were ever any ancient river-beds, they are gone, only a trace in two or three plaees being left; but as Drytown is two or three hundred feet lower than any mining town in the county, the ancient rivers may have been swept away. Some traces of one are found on the high hill south of the town, also on a hill near the quartz lode, also at Rattlesnake flat, east of the quartz lode. The clayey bed on which the gravel rested at the latter-named place indicates a bed of a glacier, and Drytown may have been the outlet for a vast floe of ice, the flats at the Central House and Plymouth forming a part of the same. The fact that the wall-rock of the ancient valley is broken down here lower than any point between the bound- aries of the county favors this theory. Some indica- tions of benches or shores of an ancient lake may be seen on the hill-sides south of Drytown.
The creek was rich several miles below town. At Campbell's store, five miles below town, the creek was as good as at any other point, and at Irish Hill, the ancient outlet of the glacial stream, it was no unusual thing for men to make fortunes of ten to
twenty thousand dollars. Whoever has time and inclination to study the connections between the ancient river beds of Fiddletown (Oleta) and the glacial marks at points farther west, will find a rieh field for study and discovery.
RATTLESNAKE GULCH
Was one of the richest gulches around Drytown. Its several branches start from the crest of the Black hills, (the rich quartz deposit heretofore described,) and empty into Dry creek, not far above the town.
MURDERER'S GULCH,
An ominous name, was so called from its being the scene of several murders in 1849-50. It lies along the reef of jurassic gravel, from which it prob- ably derives most of its gold. Blood gulch also was the seene of a murder in the same year. Some men seeing blood mingled with the water, went up the stream a few yards, and found a man who had been shot and robbed, hence the name.
MILE GULCH
Heads near Lower Rancheria, and runs north- westerly towards Dry ereek. This was also the scene of a tragedy during the excitement of 1855. The gold was from a pliocene river, which enriched Rattlesnake flat, this being one of the very few places remaining of the great gravel deposits. A family (name forgotten) settled here in '49. Rattle- snake flat was mined in 1859 or '60, by a party who brought water to it by means of a ditch and flume, from Raneheria creek.
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